Which solution is best for managing your Product Data?

The growth and long term success of e-commerce business depends on effective product data management solutions. Product data management [PDM] is a structural approach to help control, access and share large quantities of crucial data, that provides significant value to your business. It is important and tedious to maintain and manage this product information.

What is data management ?

Data management is the process of collecting, storing and using data efficiently, securely and cost effectively. The main objective of PDM is to collect and connect data from different sources and use it efficiently during decision making.

Effective data management is a combination of best practices, processes procedures with the help of effective tools, to control and manage data resources effectively. Today’s data managers need a system that is versatile enough to meet all of their employees access needs with full data security.

Tools for effective data management:

#1. Users tracking and analysis tools :

Customers surveys or interviews are valuable tools in their own way. They will tell you only what your customers say and think and help you analyze what those customers actually do

      But the users tracking and analysis tool  intelligently  gives you an insight- how your user or your website visitors are actually engaging with your product and your content. Tools like pendo or amplitude can uncover important realities about what is good or inspires your users and what is not. Companies like Accenture use Amplitude and companies like Atricem use the Pendo tool.

#2. Road mapping software tool :

Road mapping tool is used for project planning, progress tracking, activity coordination and team collaboration. This software is a must on any list of product management tools. Best example for a road mapping software tool is product plan. 

 Product plan is a great tool for managers who prefer to create an overview of their project. It allows us to create road maps quickly and easily. It communicates plans for future work to the team and builds up a consistent and standardized work process. 

#3. Customers survey tools :

Through customers survey tools  you can send the survey out to your customers and easily track and analyze the results. For gathering quick answers to important user questions, these tools are extremely helpful.

Web based survey tools like survey monkey or type form, have so many types of pre-formatted questions that whether you want to offer multiple-choice questions, drop down lists or just open comment fields. These tools help you to do surveys in minutes. Even emails, online surveys are easy, convenient and inexpensive that it can be tempting but they may upset your UX if not executed properly.

#4. Recording app for customer’s interview:

When you speak on the phone with customers for some queries, it’s always a great idea to record a call. You never know when a customer will offer a valuable insight like why they are using your product. Tools like, Go To meeting or zoom makes it easy to record those conversations and references them later.

Go To meeting provides a fast, easy and reliable professional online meeting solution that enables customers to meet face to face and communicate virtually. Zoom brings teams together in a frictionless and secure video environment. This platform provides video meetings, webinars on all devices. 

#5. Team messaging tools :

With the outbreak of pandemic, a lot of people started working from home. These business messaging tools helped teams to stay in touch and stay productive even if they can’t come to the office. When your product data starts giving trouble or gets underway, you will want an easy and immediate means of communicating. There are certain tools that allow easy and centralized team communication. Slack and confluence are best examples for team messaging tools.

Slack is a channel based messaging platform. With slack, people can work together more effectively, connect all their software tools and services and find the information that they need to do their best work-all within a secure environment. Confluence is a collaboration tool that helps teams to collaborate and share knowledge, data efficiently.

#6. Flow charting tools :

Creating a customer journey map is helpful in giving your company a clear view of your customers full experience with your company. Journey maps focus specifically on UX of using your product. It shows all the main points of the visitors, from the first visit to your website till purchasing and using your product.

Flowcharting tools like Microsoft Visio and OmniGraffle help in mapping out the specific aspects of users’ experience with your product. These flow-chart tools help you to uncover insight and helps you to develop your future strategies through your product road map.

#7. Product management tools :

Product management tools help to simplify the tracking and documenting details. For example Trello is visually appealing and is known for its fun use of cards, lists and boards. Trello is easy, free and flexible to manage your projects in an organized way. Gantt chart is an open source software that allows its users to identify problem areas in the workflow. Another PM tool is Jira. It’s excellent for team collaboration. This tool helps you track and monitor the entire product creation process. Jira can be used on a server, a data center platform and in the cloud. Other popular project management tools include Microsoft project, Pivotal Tracker will help you to execute on your road map and keep your backlog organized.

#8. Presentation software tools :

Tools like PowerPoint, Google slides and keynote can all be used to create presentations. You can make your presentation more engaging by including images, creating movements. Vision decks for example can be a powerful way of communicating your product vision to your clients/customers and earning their buying decision.

Conclusion :

While there are many tools out there to handle different products management requirements, the choice of product management tool/software depends upon your specific needs. Product management users must use the right product management tools and product management software. There are many product management tools and product management software that you can try first, before moving on to paid ones.

Guidelines for improving your website’s user experience

Your website is the most powerful tool for online marketing. It is your salesman 24/7 at your disposal. A business website can leave a lasting impression on a customer, whether good or bad depends on a lot of factors.

       When you open and see Google Analytics, you see that people are visiting your website, but they aren’t doing what they are supposed to. Your website didn’t create much of an impact on their minds. If you put consistent effort into improving the users experience [UX] of your website than everything will flow smoothly and can enhance conversion ratio. 

What is UX ?

Digital trends are rapidly changing and can make your website feel old and outdated. To overcome this challenge, there are some ways and tips to improve your UX, to make it more helpful and useful. UX is the process of increasing user satisfaction, by improving the usability, accessibility and efficiency of user with the website. A good UX means :  * The user visited your website.

  • Scrolled through different pages.
  • Understood what the website is all about and
  • Finally got what they wanted.

Tactics to improve your website’s user experience

      A visitor is always on your website with a mission. Now it is up to you- how easy you make it for them to accomplish that mission. So here are the tactics that will improve your website UX and help users find the products more easily.

#1. Have a plan :

Now that you know that your site needs some improvements, it’s time to work to tackle them. Start research your customers journey from the time they visited your website to the moment they became a customer. While doing research, think about which pages they are going to view, what content they would like to read, what offers will convert them into customers. Understanding these things will help you to design your website accordingly. Knowing the needs of the customer, will help you know the key points of your website and can make changes accordingly.

#2. Simplify your design :

To have best UX, your website should be clean, in proper order and clutter free. Visually your website should be simple, as it will be easily understood by the user. Web visitor usually visit website to seek answers and not for creativity. So avoid complicating the website with designs. When you want a particular action to be taken by a visitor coming to your site, make your site hassle free with less clutter. Every page should have a single goal. The check out page for instance, contains only what is needed for the process of checkout.   

#3. Interactive content :

Using interactive content will make your site design fun and drive engagement. Keep churning out the new content. Nobody wants to visit a stale website. So keep producing a steady stream of content to keep the site relevant and current. High quality and informative content boosts the UX and in driving massive traffic to the site. So it is well said “content is king”. To enhance the UX try adding videos, games, quizzes. Make your content simple and clear. It should be accessible to a wider audience. Visitors should be able to engage with content after a quick glance.

#4. Optimize website speed :

If your website isn’t fast enough, most people will leave it almost immediately. Almost half of web users tend to leave if a website doesn’t load in three seconds and this will definitely have a big impact on your conversion rate. Site speed is one of the main factors for ranking websites in search engines. There are many tools available to make your site lightning fast, like web page test, Google page speed, yslow and others. 

#5. Mobile friendly design :

More than 50% of all internet traffic is from mobile devices. Google also has shifted its algorithm towards mobile users. The websites that perform best on mobile will enhance your website user experience. We live in a multi screen world. This is great. But when it comes to websites, we have to make sure that our website looks great on all of these screen sizes. That’s why it is important to make your website responsive. Responsive design helps solve many problems:

  • It adapts to screen size.
  • Improves user experience.
  • It is cost effective.
  • It is easier to manage

You can check whether your website is responsive by resizing your browser size. Your website should automatically adapt itself.

#6. Easily navigable :

website’s navigation is tied in with the user experience and your conversion rate. Bad navigation will lead to people leaving your website and not coming back- while good website navigation will not only keep people engaged on your website but also help convert more users. Best example for easy navigation is Amazon home page, everything is easy to find. At first glance you can see offers that are relevant to you, as well as any deals of the day or last minute deals. All you have to do is to click on them to see the offers. The easier you make it for them to navigate through your website, the better and better the chance they will convert.

#7. Use of white space :

white space is any empty space: on the sides, between paragraphs and around product images. White space has a significant impact on both user experience and your conversion rate. For instance use of white space can

  • Help you highlight a specific message that you want your visitors to see.
  • Draws people attention to something if you want people to notice something specific on your website [like an offer/discount],use white space around it.
  • It helps you to better organize your content and elements.

#9. Customers review :

when people search for products on platforms like Amazon or Flipkart, they tend to see the product reviews that contains mostly four or five stars. These reviews are from people who wrote out their experience with a product. Adding such reviews to your website helps the customer to gain trust in the product, which in turn pushes the customer to purchase it. As long as the reviews/testimonials are genuine, your website will surely enhance users experience and help in conversion too.

Conclusion:

To have a strong and positive impact of your website on visitors, your website should be speedy, mobile friendly, easily navigable, and a clean and clear website design, easy to understand. If your website is efficient and effective with your customers need, you will definitely be high. Year by year , you have to apply new strategies of improving your website. Improvement of website is necessary as expectations and technology keeps on changing from time to time.

Steps for Data Cleaning and why it matters?

In the world of data processing there is one saying

   “Garbage in – Garbage out

It means your results are only as good as the data you’re using to get them. Incorrect or inconsistent data leads to false conclusions and false conclusions have bad impact on your business. This is true if you are a researcher, small business owner or a large enterprise.

If you make your decisions based on incorrect or inconsistent data, you can be sure that the business results will not be good. You may lose clients, business opportunities, time and money.

Data cleansing is referred to as data cleaning or data scrubbing. Data cleaning are steps to clean data before using data for analysis. This is accomplished by removing or modifying data that is incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant, duplicated or inaccurate. This technique minimizes the risk of wrong or inaccurate conclusions or results.

Steps for cleansing data :

The techniques used for data cleaning may vary according to the types of data your company stores.

Following are the basic steps for cleaning data :

#1. Removing duplicate or irrelevant data :

Duplicate observations will happen most often during data collection. When you combine data sets from multiple places or receive data from clients or multiple departments, there are chances of creating duplicate data. Deduplication of data has to be considered in this process.

Irrelevant data are those observations that do not fit into the specific problem you are trying to analyze. For example if you are analyzing data regarding young customers, but your data set includes older generations, then in such case you have to remove those irrelevant observations. This can make analysis more efficient.

#2. Structural errors : 

There are different types of structural errors from typos to inconsistent capitalization. This can create problems when categorizing or grouping data, so they need cleansing. For example “gender” is a categorical variable, usually of two classes, male and female, but you may encounter more than two different categories of the variable such as : *m; *male; *F; *fem. Data cleansing helps to recognize such mislabeled or inconsistently capitalized classes. Also review you data collection and data transformation process to prevent data issues.

#3. Handling missing data :

‘Missing data’ is a tricky issue. Just be clear that you cannot simply ignore missing values in your data set. Deciding whether to drop, impute or flag missing data. Using/not using the missing data affects the accuracy of your analysis.

  • Imputing : It means working out the missing value based on the other data. The pattern will be re-created that the observations have already created.
  • Dropping : Dropping observations that have missing values when analyzing statistical data. Study shows dropping is better than imputing values.
  • Flagging : Flagging means telling your ML algorithm about any missing value. Flagging is done when the data is missing continuously, rather than randomly.

#4. Filtering outliers :

Another thing you have to remember during  the process of data cleansing are outliers. Outliers are values that are totally very different. For example, you are researching your app user’s age and find entries like 72 and 2. The former might be a senior citizen who is up to date with the technology. But the latter is mostly likely an error since toddlers don’t use apps. If an outlier proves to be irrelevant for analysis or proves to be a mistake, it should be removed, in doing so you can increase the performance of the dataset.

#5. Standardization of data :

Cleansing your data includes standardizing it, to have a uniform format for each value. For example, all values of height should be in the same unit, so you may need to convert from feet to meters or vice-versa, to achieve uniformity. 

Make sure that you use a standardized unit of measurement. These include weight, distance and temperature. As for dates, choose either the USA style or the European format.

#6. Validate the data :

In the conclusion of the data cleaning process, you should be able to answer these questions:

  • Does the data make sense?
  • Is the data is appropriate with regard to its field?
  • Does your data help to develop your next theory?

False results, as a result of incorrect data, may inform poor strategy and decision making. Conversely, data cleansing can help achieve a long list of benefits which may lead to maximize profits.

Pull up :

Monitoring errors and better reporting to see where errors are coming from, Making it easier to fix incorrect or corrupt data for future applications. Clean data helps in taking effective and efficient decisions, resulting in increased productivity and revenue. Using tools for cleansing will make for more efficient business practices and quicker decision-making. Therefore cleansing data from time to time is advisable, for a good result.

Why all eCommerce merchants need Product Catalog Management?

ECommerce  trends are changing with the changing world. Every customer demands high quality, consistent product information before they purchase anything online. Thus eCommerce merchants have to meet this demand to stay ahead of their competitors. Here comes the role of catalog management.

          Product catalog management is a marketing strategy for organizing standardizing cleansing and publishing your product data for enhancing high sales of the product. A product catalog is a type of marketing broucher, that lists product details that helps buyers make a purchase decision. These details include product features, descriptions, dimensions, price, weight, color, availability, customer reviews and more.

          The best example of a product catalog is the Amazon market place, where you can get bundle of information in a single click. For example, if you want to buy a wrist watch- Amazon lists all the information that you need like it is for male or female, brand name, color of the dial, price, availability, offer/discounts, reviews and more. A product catalog is needed for both B2B and B2C domains.

Who needs Product Catalog?

Product catalogs are useful to several business users and groups such as sales reps, buyers, store and warehouse managers, field marketers, external parties such as agencies, partners.

Reasons why you need a product catalog

 #1. Help Retailers :

To overcome certain challenges like selling across multiple channels, updating products constantly, expanding product catalog, dealing with suppliers data and keeping data quality consistent. ECommerce catalog management helps merchants to build a good foundation for their business.

#2. Enhance users experience :

customers browse a product  on an online market place and may navigate to the business website for further information to help them in making a purchase decision. Here the product catalog helps the customer by providing accuracy and reliability of product information. As customer satisfaction has become the moto of today’s competitive eCommerce business. Thus eCommerce businesses must ensure consistency and accuracy of their product information across the multiple sales channels and platforms to provide a consistent customer experience.

#3. Improves conversion rate :

The main aim of product catalog management is to convert the visitors into a loyal customer. When customers have all the data that they need, they can make decision and buy the product, Thus increasing the conversion rate. A clear product catalog helps the customer during their browsing period and also helps them to buy the product of their choice.

#4. Enhance branding :

managing the entire product portfolio information is a challenging task and time consuming. Poor product categorization may leave a bad impact of your website. Thus may cause disappointments and inconvenience to the customers. As a result you may lose a potential customer of your brand. Difficulty in accessing your product data may affect the buying decision and you may lose a loyal customer. Product information documents are useful to promote a company’s brand. Using distinct colors, images, logo helps in enhancing your brand. A well organized product catalog system enables the customers to explore the products online with ease and optimized their experience.

#5.Helps in growing your business :

A good product catalog management will help in growing your business. A good product catalog allows you to support a bigger number of products; that you will be adding as per the changes and demand in the market. Excellent product catalog makes it easy for you to add more products; and push them to your sales channels without any problem.

#6. Generates sales offline :

Today, buyers research products online and make purchases offline in malls, shops, events etc; in such instances, it is important to help customers with information on their mobiles, iPads to fasten their buying process. Websites, landing pages with a clear product catalog enables customers to do research; and collect information about the product and thus making up their mind to buy the product.

#7.Omni channel experience :

managing catalog across various channels is a complex process. It is important to efficiently manage product data and maintain consistency across different channels to ensure shoppers find your product easily and have a great users experience. A proper catalog management should be built effectively to allow you to easily access product information from suppliers and publish it across different platforms. Thus catalog management allows you to maintain consistency across different channels enabling you to offer omni channel experience.

#8. Challenges :

Product catalog management is highly essential for retail brands to survive and strive in the ever changing business environment. There are certain challenges associated with their ever changing business. For instance today’s customers have shifted from desktop applications to multi-device and multi screen usage. Your product should be accessible across multiple platforms. Retailers face secondary challenge of optimizing t6heir product-catalog. Frequent updates related to the products such as changes in price, addition of new features etc, should be done at regular intervals.

Conclusion :

Efficient catalog management services help optimize time and cost in managing large volume of product data. Well presented products, appealing designs and relevant description optimizes the online store on search engine and also simplifies navigation. A well organized catalog enhance business growth.    

Top Magento development trends to follow in 2021

Surprisingly, there are more than 20 million ecommerce websites globally. Picking the right eCommerce platform is the foundation for benefitting from a successful online store. In today’s world, modern shoppers expect quick, consistent and smooth customer experience. Most of the eCommerce startups out there, fail due to their inability to deliver their customers a smooth customer experience. Another reason is, the eCommerce website is the platform on which they are built. Although there are tons of eCommerce platforms to choose from, Magento is gaining popularity and trust among the online owners. Startups and entrepreneurs are now seeking better Magento development services for expanding an edge over their competitors.

Some of the trends in 2021 for Magento eCommerce development are :

#1. Consistent and smooth consumer experience :

one of the most important features for an online website is to have a consistent and smooth consumer experience. Websites having this feature ranks higher on SEO. It also makes your online store stand out from the rest of your competitors. If your website doesn’t satisfy this feature then, you may lose potential customers, sales and revenue generated through them. Hundreds of new eCommerce websites are flooding the market on a daily basis, so make sure that your eCommerce website builds a consistent and smooth user experience. Platform like Magento helps your estore to fulfill this requirement on a large scale.

#2. Push notification :

website push notifications are short messages, sent by your website to your subscribers, browsers and customers. This feature is used by estore owners to grow their traffic inflow as well as to engage with their existing traffic flow i.e. their potential customers. Push notification is done through personalized emails, social media and SMS. Magento helps your website to deliver personalized push notifications to your customers by analyzing their buying patterns.

#3. Progressive web app [PWA] :

With PWA, customers have 24/7 access to the online store. It works in areas facing poor internet connection. Customers can view all the information irrespective of their platform. Magento has adapted this revolutionized feature. With this feature you can optimize eCommerce experience.

#4. Live streaming :

On eCommerce marketing, live streaming is the most effective feature, which is catching the trend. Recently webinars have gained much importance in the digital world. Live streaming of your store with live chats with your customer on a platform like Facebook helps the customers to know your product well and also the eCommerce owner will help the customer to satisfy their queries. Through live streaming you can engage with your customer from anywhere anytime. This huge shift happened because of the pandemic which pushed brands and retailers to move ahead, with this trend.

#5. Visual search :

people use visual search mostly to get directions, and identify landmarks, shop recipes, and local business reviews. People are searching more images than ever before. Platforms like Pinterest get 600 million visual searches monthly. If you want your site’s content to be served to your visitor as a search result, ensure you use image SEO. Equipping your online store with visual search and image recognition can help you attract more young buyers to your online store. Magento provides this feature to increase the capability of your eCommerce website.

#6. Voice search :

voice search has taken the eCommerce industry to a next level. The users no longer need to type a single word to search for any product with voice search feature. Voice operating assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google voice console are the buzz of the new era. As soon as the device has input, it will detect the language in which the query has been asked. The keywords in the query will be captured and the query will be answered accordingly. Magento by having this feature, helps in faster, easier and time saving search.

#7. Artificial intelligence :

artificial intelligence [AI] is transforming digital strategies. As it has the ability to improve digital marketing strategies and provide valuable customer insight for companies. For instance brands like Amazon and Spotify are using AI systems successfully. AI can analyze consumer search patterns and behaviors, use data from social media platforms and help businesses understand how customers find any product or services. So we can say that AI is the driving force behind digital marketing. Magento with this feature helps in enhancing the overall customer experience for eCommerce website and the businesses

#8. AR/VR :

Augmented reality [AR] and Virtual reality [VR] is enhancing the shopping experience. For example the users can now actually visualize the product in their surroundings and then decide whether to make a purchase or not. The main objective of AR in marketing is to achieve increased brand awareness and greater customer engagement. Best example of AR is Lens kart, it allows you to take your photo from your phone and test different types of frames by virtually placing it on your photo. You can move around and check how it looks. Magento eCommerce is providing a wonderful AR/VR technology in 2021.

#9. Integration with social media :

People spend a tremendous amount of time on social media platforms. It naturally becomes a good place to market your products and them and gain brand awareness. Leading channels like Facebook Instagram have added marketing packages to help businesses. Social media are a powerful digital marketing technique. Magento has been quick in adapting this trend to boost sales and increase revenue.

#10. To make B2B consumer centric :

today’s is a competitive market. Where we see neck to neck competition among the estores, Now there is a need for B2B companies to understand their buyers and develop a direct-to-consumer channel. This helps the estore owners to understand customer information and imparts a great customer experience. Magento has this feature of enabling B2B businesses to shift their attention from being product-centric to customer-centric.

#11. Conversion with micro animations :

The world has largely appreciated the utilization of animations such as GIFs. Currently the world is witnessing trends like memes and entertainment. Almost every social media is entertaining people with a wide range of memes. This is quite engaging. Hence animated icons can be used as one of the eCommerce shipping best practices. Magento with this revolutionized feature is helping in increasing conversion ratio.

#12. Smart search functionality :

There is no point in creating a website, if people are unaware of it. Magento has this functionality feature to look into the SEO parameters to help drive traffic to your platform. Not only driving traffic to your website but also helps in enhancing conversion ratio, thus giving a better user experience.

Conclusion :

For eCommerce platforms based on Magento, any change in technology or updation is not a big challenge to tackle. With the boom in mobile devices and websites online shopping continues to touch new heights in the coming years. Magento incorporates all the latest functionalities and keeps innovating to help brands stay ahead in online business.

UNSPSC/eclass/Etim classification.. why they are needed?

When working with product master data management [MDM] and Product Information Management [PIM], one important thing is product classification. There are two types of product classification standards 1. Internal standard classification  2. External classification standards. Internal standard classification, is using your own internal classification being product grouping and hierarchy management within your organization. External standard includes 

1.UNSPSC 2.eclass 3. Etim 4. GPC 5.commodity codes or HS codes.

Here we discuss about the first three external standards :

UNSPSC :

It stands for the United nations standard products and services code [UNSPSC]. Mostly used for the UN Development Programme [UNDP]. It is a global standard for classification of product and services. This standard is often used in public tenders and at some marketplaces. It has five levels of hierarchy with eight digit coding numbers. UNSPSC competes with a number of other product and commodity coding system like eclass, GPC etc.,

      The levels allow users to search products more precisely. The five levels of classification are : [segment, family class, commodity, business function]. Each level contains a two character numerical value and textual description.

UNSPSC classification example :

The UNSPSC can be further extended by adding a 9th & 10th digit after the commodity number. These numbers can indicate business relationships to the supplier such as rental/lease. For instance the classification code is “43-20-15-01-14”

Segment: 43 information technology broadcasting and telecommunication devices and accessories.

Family : 20 components for information technology or broadcasting or telecommunications computer equipment and accessories.

Class : 15 computers accessories

Commodity : 01 computer switch boxes. Docking station.

Business function : 14 retail.

  • Each level including the lowest “commodity” level of the UNSPSC hierarchy has a unique number assigned to it. For any given UNSPSC number, you can tell which segment, family and class the particular commodity belongs to.
  • Along with UNSPSC, companies can create their own taxonomies.
  • Also having a unique number for a given commodity doesn’t create confusion while translation of the commodity’s description in any language.

Eclass :

One of the standard classifications is eclass. It is suitable for different industrial branches, internationally successful and available in multiple languages. Eclass classifies a wide range of industrial products and was developed by leading German companies. It represents a standard for the exchange of information between suppliers and customers and especially represents the procurement markets for buyers. Eclass operates on the principle of a hierarchical system and classifies products and services into four step category [main groups, groups, commodity classes, properties]  

Classification example for the computer doc station.

19-01-92-01

19- information, communication and media technology.

  1. Computer system.

92- Computer system accessories.

  1. Docking station.

Similarities between UNSPSC and eclass :

  • Both UNSPSC and eclass have four levels of hierarchy.
  • Both support multiple language

Compared to UNSPSC, eclass has one more advantage. The standardized classification system under eclass, helps to perform statistical evaluation. It also helps to find, seek and describe products in a targeted manner. For this reason standard sets of properties are attached to the four levels of classification structure. These properties are used to describe the classified products.

ETIM :

It stands for European Technical Information Modes. Etim is used for the classification and technical description of products in the electronic industry. The central association of electro technical craftsmen [UNETO] in Netherlands, developed the basic model of this. The Etim standardization was initiated in Germany and has so far been supported by the association.

      Similarly, Etim provides product information from one source – the manufacturer. The main aim of this type of classification is to make sure that there are no ambiguities or misunderstandings when it comes to sharing the technical characteristics of products. So Etim helps manufacturers send product information to their wholesalers in a streamlined way.

Benefits of Etim : 

  • Reduces the risk of errors in product data.
  • Model is multi-lingual and translations are provided automatically for international markets.
  • Information can be sent either digitally or in print.
  • The consumers get better, more accurate product information.
  • The model is a reusable template.

ETIM uses the following way to classify products:

  • product groups
  • Product classes
  • synonyms [alternative keywords]
  • features
  • values
  • units

For example : EG000009 

Here G stands for group.  A string of six numbers that identifies the type.

The following are the industries that are adopting Etim:

  • Electro-technical
  • HVAC and sanitary
  • Building construction
  • Ship building.

          Likewise, we see that Etim is a free and open standard. However, Etim international allows companies to become influencing numbers of the association that allows them to vote on changes and improvements to the Etim standard.

Need for classification :

Even if you have already sorted your products into your own classification, and use this classification in your web shop, as a search tree. Customers and partners may ask you to additionally sort the products according to standard classification such as Etim, eclass etc.; above all the wholesalers want the industry to sort their products into standardized classes in order to offer their customers products from different manufacturers via uniform classifications.

              Thus the need for classification is to create a uniform and logical system, to manage product data. And also to facilitate problem free communication among different subjects. For instance, you and your partner use different words to say exactly the same thing. Thus the classification of products and services can prevent misunderstanding and unite classification.

       Therefore, Data collected for product classification, is always available with the clients. And so, the customer can find exactly those products that meet his requirements the most on the market.

Best UX practices to ensure a pleasant experience for your customers

What is UX ?

The way your visitor feels about your website determines whether he/she will use it again is all about user experience{UX}. While navigating your website, if the visitor finds it difficult what the website is all about, than Conversions are too far- in fact your visitor will not return to your site again. Hence it is necessary that you pay attention to the UX on your website and strive to improve it. 

Keep your website simple and easily understandable. Your content should be to the point. The same goes for advertisements. 72% of the users get annoyed when seeing irrelevant ad’s and promotions on a site. Users now expect more functionality and better usability. Your website should be rich with relevant content and designed to provide them with everything needed to purchase and use your service or product.

To transform your website into an effective marketing tool, you have to create an effective small business website with a dynamic user experience.

The following practices will ensure a pleasant experience for your customer :

#1. Clean website design :

A clean and simple web design makes it easy for the user to find what they are looking for. Remove the unnecessary clutter on your website. Most website visitors will spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website. Grab your users attention above this and impress them to increase the time they spend on your site.

#2. Choose colors and fonts appropriately :

we want the layout to look attractive. If the visitor feels hard, to make out what your page says, the more likely they are to back out of it. The website back ground should be simple clean and always easy to read. So look carefully while choosing color. Make sure that there is a healthy contrast between back grounds and font colors. Make your font size unique- so that your users can actually read it without squinting or zooming in.

#3. Keep it simple :

Readability and accessibility play an important role in creating great user experience. Just because the text in your app is error free, doesn’t mean it is easy to read. Low readability will create navigation problems and your user might feel lost. Instructions should be straight forward and easy to follow. You can achieve simplicity of your website, if you use simple language, which all users can understand it.

#4. Speed up the loading time :

Your website should fully load in a few seconds, even if you are using a secure website format. Study shows that 53% of visitors will abandon a web page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Many times slow speed affects user experience because people treat surfing the web is like talking to people. If your webpage is slow than users will look for something else that says more in less time. Google page speed helps to know about your website loading speed.

#5. Regular updates :

Your website is the first impression a customer or client will have of your business. Make sure the information they see is current and updated on your website, if the customer see stale information, they may not visit your site again. Keep your website updated, by uploading new content, product related videos and photos. This type of changes attract the visitors to your website.

#6. Mobile device compatibility :

We live in multi -screen world. This is great. Now-a-days customers find it handy and easy to search through mobile. Make sure your website is mobile friendly or you may lose many customers. mobile friendly websites are responsive. Responsive design helps solve many problems.

  • It adapts to screen size.
  • Improves users experience.
  • It is cost effective.
  • It is easier to manage.

#7. Easy to navigate :

Navigation is a huge factor when it comes to SEO, and this is because it directly affects the customer experience. Customers should move swiftly and easily around your site without confusion. Easy navigation will make customers and clients want to return to site over and over. When your website offers a rewarding experience, users will be more likely to return to it.

#8. Know your target audience :

You design products for specific users, this means you will have to get to know them inside out. Find out what their problems and pains are? What their needs are? Only by providing solutions to these queries the customers will get what they want with ease. This will give users a pleasant experience while shopping on your website.

#9. Clear call to action :

For eCommerce sites, your purchase call-to-action [CTA] will generally be an add to cart or a buy now button. Having a clear CTA is essential to convert traffic into sales. Tests have shown that CTA button performs best at the point in the page where the visitor finds information they need. Use a more strategic approach and place the button at the point where the visitor is prepared to make a decision. The button should look different on your page. Phrases like Buy now, Check out and Add to cart work really well. They are tested, tried and true.

#10. Functionality :

Functionality is what UX is all about. For a great functionality, remove stocky images and difficult terms. Use right images that work for your audience. For instance website like Amazon doesn’t have the most beautiful design, but it has excellent functionality. 

#11. Include reviews on product pages :

Including customer reviews on your product pages can be a very powerful tool in converting visitors into buyers. Visitors look for reviews as this will help them to learn about the service customers received when ordering products. Showing customer reviews on product page will show new visitors that you are a trust worthy seller. 

#12. Offer different payment methods :

Offering different payment methods on your e-commerce store has lots of advantages including

  • Customer convenience 
  • Payment customization
  • More security

If people don’t see their preferred methods of payment they’re much more likely to abandon their cart. There are more than 200 different ways to take payment online. Use those payment methods which are more popular with your customer. Some popular methods are PayPal, Alipay and credit cards.

Conclusion :

The primary purpose of UX design is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through utility, ease of use and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product. Users experience gives your business the ability to increase repeatable traffic. It also provides an excellent return on investment. Increases digital sales, saves labor and time.

Ways to Optimize your eCommerce product pages

Beautifully designed home pages are important for making a good impression. But no pages have a greater impact on sales and overall conversions than product pages. It’s where your customers evaluate your products, look for special offers and ultimately decide to click the “add to cart” button. Thus helps the visitor to become the customer. Make sure that your product page is optimized, so that you don’t miss out on potential visitors.

The fundamental secret to e-commerce growth is not more traffic, but more conversions from the existing traffic. So there is a need to create a highly effective and optimized site that helps to convert as many visitors as possible into sales.

Ways to optimize your product pages..

#1. Clearly specify your product name :

product names affect search rankings to a great extent. Use the keywords to create descriptive product names. Ensure that they are to the point and include the necessary descriptions customers might be searching for. Make sure that your product names are relevant and match with the description provided on your landing page.

#2. Use high quality images:

Shoppers move rapidly through web pages or search engines, unless something catches their eyes. Large clear and high quality photos of your products can make it easy to grab the attention of the shoppers. The shoppers can’t see the product in person, but they can assess the product, its quality with a high quality photo/image. High quality photos cover all the product details and makes the buyer feel confident while making their online purchase.

#3. Provide detailed product content :

Beyond product images, a great ecommerce product page should provide a high level of information about the product. It’s the content that informs customers about the benefits and features of a product. It can convince them to buy from you. Make sure that you use a polite, engaging and personal touch in your product description. This will help the customers to decide while buying the product. Detailed content will also help you rank higher in SERPs and thereby bring in more customers to your store.

#4. Add trust badges :

Now-a-days we hear a lot about data breaches, cyber theft, credit card frauds and personal information being stolen by hackers. Due to this customers become more wary to share their personal information online. This is creating a barrier to e-commerce shopping. As an online owner, you have to convince the shoppers that their information is safe in your hands. To build this trust, trust badges are recommended. As per study, 48% of shoppers agreed that the trust seals help them to decide whether to make a purchase. Trust badges are easy way to let shoppers know that their purchases are safe and help to build confidence in your company and feel comfortable to make purchases. 

#5. Improve site speed :

Site speed is one of the main factors for ranking websites in the search engine. Searchers hate waiting. Check the loading time of the web page, if it takes more than three seconds to load then there is a need to make the website lightning fast. There are many tools available to make the site faster, such as web page test, Google page speed, Yslow and others. Quickening the site speed of your product pages is the ultimate remedy to cart abandonment, Rather than getting discouraged with slow pages.

#6. Make mobile a priority :

Today over 80% of online shoppers use their mobile phones to shop through e-commerce. Make sure that you optimize your website to use on mobile phones equally well. A mobile unfriendly store may lose its customers, sales revenue, traffic and everything.

#7. Sense of urgency :

Create a sense of urgency in the minds of your customers, so that they rush to make purchases. You must use FOMO[fear of missing out] well enough to convert engagement into purchase. One way of doing this is by announcing a limit time sale. You must ensure that you make them realize that they will miss out the sale if they are late. You can do so by adding a countdown clock. Another way of doing it, is by letting your customers know that a limited quantity of the products is left.

#8. Reviews from customers :

Reviews build trust and give potential customers the reassurance they need from others to make their purchasing decisions. Given the power of referrals, it’s best to prominently feature reviews from customers on your product pages. For instance Shopify users can download the product reviews app on the Shopify store.

#9. Pricing and shipping costs :

On the product page, you should clearly mention the price of the product. One more aspect where most e-commerce websites fail is the shipping cost. Very few e-commerce product pages list the pricing and shipping information transparently. Usually the shipping and VAT charges are added later on. This will put off your customers interest. Instead try to be more transparent about your charges in the first place. Show your shipping charges and the complete cost of the purchase right on the product page. To make the offer more sweet, you can offer free shipping to your customers. 

#10. Display the return policy on your ecommerce product page :

Your goal should remain as transparent as possible with your customers. A great way of doing this is by outlining your return policy on the product page. Your customers must know the steps that they may need to take, if they wish to return the product. A clear return policy on the e-commerce product page makes things clear as well as reduces the conflict that might arise after the purchase of the product.

Conclusion :

As an online seller, the product page is your final moment to win the sale. If you can show buyers the benefits of your products on this page, they will complete their order and give you a sale. You can easily craft a product page that drives conversions, by using the tips in this guide. With few changes and adjustments, your product page will keep shoppers engaged and gradually lead them towards completing their purchase.

What to test in an eCommerce Website

People are adopting online shopping like never before, and global eCommerce market size is expected to grow very high in the coming years. Current technology trends and accessibility have made it possible for every business to create an eCommerce platform in no time and start selling. It is important to test eCommerce websites and mobile applications, so that it enhances users experience, customer data security, quick load time, safe and secure transaction. All these factors help in maintaining the website stability and enjoyable customers experience.

Why testing is important for your eCommerce success:

eCommerce applications have lots of users world- wide as they deal with finance, marketing retail and wholesale, manufacturing and auctions. Better testing techniques will safeguards the website from failure. The main reasons for testing your eCommerce application is to check the usability of the application, its user friendliness and to make your eCommerce website/ application bugs free.

Following are the important factors where testing of eCommerce websites would be helpful :

1. Ensuring the readiness of transactions :

Testing an eCommerce website will help you make sure that every single webpage on your website is tested well enough and is validated to complete all the eCommerce transactions. It will also confirm whether it is ready for the customer use or not.

2. Enhancing the usability :

The success of online buying website depends upon the increased and smooth usability, along with reduced risk factors. Testing process for eCommerce website deals with both of these aspects.

3. Reducing the risk of changes :

The changes in your eCommerce website should enhance customers experience and a hassle free transaction. Testing makes sure that the incorporated new changes doesn’t affect the website and it is bugs free.

4. Evaluating the functionality and compatibility against load :

In order to serve customers requirements and needs perfectly, every organization needs to ensure that the function provided in their websites are working properly at different amounts of load conditions and whether the website is able to support different browsers and platforms or not. Testing is a must for eCommerce website to ensure the compatibility and good working conditions of the website during heavy loads i.e. during holiday season as well.

Important segments of eCommerce testing :

Testing eCommerce website will help you to identify and rectify errors, that affect your website’s performance and a good customer experience.

#1. Home Page:

Home page is the first page to appear when a user opens the website. On an eCommerce website the homepage consists of a very rich and useful source of information. It is important to test the interoperability and functionality of the homepage of the e-commerce website.

#2. Category pages :

It is one of the major areas in terms of testing. The range and breadth of the products should be tested by checking that the products are grouped as per category or not. Also check, how quickly the user is able to find the correct product category on the website.

#3. Product detail page :

The product detail page is the heart of the eCommerce system. Hence it is really important to make sure that the product detail pages are tested thoroughly and how the functionality of these pages work. It involves checking elements like,

  • Product code and title
  • Product image
  • Enlarging the image
  • Product description
  • Full body view of the product….and many more.

#4. Shopping cart :

Separate resources and efforts should be dedicated towards the functionality of the shopping cart. They should also test that the quantities, shopping cart items and display option are shown accordingly. Whether the transactions taking place on the website or not ? The functionality of removing and changing items in a shopping cart should also be tested.

#5. Payment Gateways :

This factor is very important for both the businesses and the customers because it involves money. The payment gateway allows a merchant to accept credit, debit card and other forms of electronic payments. So payment modes should be safe and secure as these are important targets for hackers and scammers.  The checkout and payment gateway should also be tested with different payment options such as PayPal, online banking, cash, etc..,

#6. Search :

Most of the customers come to the website and search for a specific product that they have in mind. Hence the website should make it easier for customers to locate the product without much difficulty. This is a crucial segment which should be tested thoroughly. This factor helps in determining the success of the eCommerce website, because customers often have only a few features of a certain product in mind. Search algorithm of your website helps the visitor to find the best product, they are looking for. 

#7. After order tests:

Whenever a customer places an order there are many things that will happen afterwards, such as showing the shipping status, there is an option to cancel the order in case the customer doesn’t want it. Sometimes the customer wants to return their product in case of a defect or a complaint. So there should be a feature relating to the returns as well. The things to be tested here are that these features are working properly and are easy to use or not, because this can affect the customer.

#8. Browser compatibility:

It is important for eCommerce applications to work on all types of web browsers such as Google chrome, Firefox, opera etc.., you need to test the browser compatibility of the application to make sure that your customers are able to use your e-commerce website without any hassle.

Testing eCommerce application work flow :

  • Search functionality, sign up and login options
  • Features for posting product reviews so that other customers can see them and make their decision.
  • Sorting features, to filter different product types
  • Adding or removing products from the shopping cart.
  • Checking out process, invoice generation and order number, payment processing and payment gateway for buying the product

            So, to offer a hassle free e-commerce experience to customers, it is important to test the complete workflow of your website and mobile application. Before planning and performing the functional testing, specialists should understand and familiarize themselves with the e-commerce website very well, so that they can plan tests accordingly.

Pull up :

By conducting thorough eCommerce website application testing, you can significantly reduce the number of errors that crop up when the website is made live to your customers.

Reasons why digital asset management is important for brand success

Any media content can be defined as a digital asset, but this definition is incomplete. Digital assets come in several forms, the common ones include images, audio, videos, documents, pdf’s and so..on. DAM is a system that lets you organize your assets quickly and efficiently. It is almost like a library, where all the information you need is accessible at your fingertips.

       DAM is the source where marketers can find every relevant version of media assets that have been created for the brand images. The most important objective of DAM is that it must be simple and easy to understand. If you can’t access, modify and use your stored digital assets, when and how you want, then the DAM solution isn’t working for you. Good DAM supports workflow and allows content modification.

Importance of digital asset management:

1. Reduces the cost:

New digital assets are always being created. But having more files means it’s easier to misplace them. DAM eliminates the cost of recreating the lost materials once they are stored in the system, they are secure and easy to retrieve.

2. Streamlined distribution:

DAM platforms give stakeholders the information they need. Faster sales team, external partners can all have instant access to materials. This will enhance the distribution process across channels and other systems.

3. Reduce workflow:

By providing a complete picture of available content, DAM enhances the value of assets through reuse and repurposing and reduces the possibility of miscommunications.

4. Maintains brand consistency:

DAM solutions help ensure all team members are using the same, on brand files. With simple search tools, marketers can curtail the use of outdated or low quality file versions. This consistent use of right content helps ensure brand messaging to every consumer.

5. Enhances creativity:

A variety of DAM tools bring efficiency and agility to content creation version control, workflow approval – reduce time spent on manual tasks and enhance creativity.

6. Permission to access:

 Governance tools allow DAM administrators to control how different user groups can interact with assets. This allows organizations to restrict access to sensitive content.

7. Improves return on Investment [ROI]:

DAM systems often includes analytic tools that track who is using which asset when, where and how. This data can be used to inform system optimization.

8. Meta data:

meta data brings order. Keywords allocated should be more specific to be found easily. This requires some work when entering data, but it pays off during ongoing business.

9. File storage solutions:

DAM has a substantially large and clear storage solution. Temporary solutions such as CMS Microsoft share point, Box does not have the depth of a DAM platform in storage. Design and development of DAM is for this purpose.

10. Facilitates multi channel:

Multiple marketing channels via DAM platform is very time efficient and cost effective. Information is centrally stored in a DAM platform with the help of connectors for the relevant channels, they can be easily displayed without any problem.

Conclusion :

In a nutshell, DAM is an organization or company’s method of storing and organizing digital capital, for easy retrieval when needed. This boosts the productivity of teams, promotes innovations and makes digital assets more secure.